No time had elapsed in the Southern California Regional Division I final and Westchester already had a lead against King High of Riverside.

As soon the clock started running, it was no contest.

Using its suffocating defense and balance on offense that King couldn’t match, the Comets never came close to trailing in advancing to the state championship game for the first time since 2005 with a shockingly easy 53-39 victory Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Westchester (34-2) will play for its fifth state title Saturday against defending Division I champion Oakland McClymonds at ARCO Arena in Sacramento. McClymonds, which beat Dominguez last season, advanced with a 46-43 victory over Monte Vista of Danville.

Aside from some hugs among the coaching staff, the smiling Comets simply walked off the court and exchanged high-fives. They’re waiting for a bigger celebration.

“We’re going to celebrate next Saturday,” said senior Dominique O’Connor, Westchester’s point guard and floor leader.

The night couldn’t have started any better. King was assessed a technical foul prior to the start of the game as a result of Adam Smith dunking the ball during warm-ups, a national high school rule violation confirmed by a CIF Southern Section spokesman.

Jordin Mayes’ subsequent two free throws put the Comets up before the first inbound of the ball. Then Denzel Douglas scored off a fast break and O’Connor added two more free throws.

By the time the Wolves got their first field goal, Westchester had a 10-1 lead following a layup by DeShun McCoy and a jumper in the lane by Dwayne Polee. All five starters registered points before the game was three minutes old.

“We were real surprised that we had a 10-1 lead,” Douglas said. “And then we just took it to them.”

It was nothing like Thursday night’s nail-biter against City Section and Western League rival Fairfax, in which junior forward Polee’s 5-footer with four seconds left capped a comeback from seven points down with 2:47 remaining.

No such drama was necessary against King, a team that had taken apart powerhouse Mater Dei in the Southern Section Division I-AA finals. A nine-point lead forged by Westchester after one period only grew and grew as the game wore on.

Every key player seemingly chipped in. O’Connor had 14 points and four assists, Mayes finished with 12, Polee had 11 points and a team-leading nine rebounds and Douglas added seven key points and two steals.

“But that’s the way we’ve been all year,” Comets coach Ed Azzam said. “Jordin’s probably our best shooter and Domo’s our best offensive player but everyone contributes. Dwayne, DeShun, Kareem (Jamar), Denzel, they’ve all been contributing all year.

“It’s a testament to them that they share the ball so effectively during a game.”

King faced a similar 13-point deficit against Taft on Thursday night in the regional semifinals, but it pulled off a stunning rally over the final two quarters to win, 58-48, as Chris Harriel sparked the comeback by scoring all 22 of his points after halftime.

Westchester simply wouldn’t allow any room for dramatics. Polee had an emphatic slam dunk to trigger a six-point run early in the third that pushed the lead to 36-18. Douglas cut off a minor King threat at the end of the period with a 3-pointer, giving the Comets a 17-point advantage.

“Yeah, I thought it was going to be a close game,” O’Connor said. “I didn’t think we were going to have a big lead. When they got the first technical for dunking, we added two points and that helped us out. Ever since then, we scored back to back.

“We just came out and played good team basketball tonight.”

The Comets defense limited King to just 25.6-percent shooting for the game and they scored 14 points off 15 Wolves turnovers. Kawhi Leonard, King’s San Diego State-bound forward, had 16 points but made only five of 13 shots while Harriel managed only five points on 0-for-8 shooting from the field.

It got so bad for King that its coach, Tim Sweeney Jr., was ejected after picking up his second technical at the end of the third quarter. Sweeney was hit with his first one with 6:19 left in the second quarter for arguing with the officials.

Azzam said he thought the Wolves were deflated after the pregame technical and the Comets’ starts.

“I know it frustrated their coach to start the game,” he said. “It would have frustrated me if one of my kids had done it, too. So it was a bad start to the game for them. That might have had something to do with the early run. They just never quite got into it.”

Now it’s on to Sacramento, where Westchester will go for its fourth state title in the last eight years.

“This is real big,” Douglas said. “Winning (regionals) is one of our goals. They said we couldn’t do it and now we did it. Now we’ve got one more.”

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